Rationale for the seminar

Seminar archive 2007-2008
24 October 2007 3pm - 4.30pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Malet Place Engineering Building, Room 1.02. UCL Main Campus Free entrance | All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screening of Cento Passi (One Hundred Steps) with English subtitles Director : Marco Tullio Giordana (2000) Starring : Luigi Lo Cascio, Luigi Maria Burruano Synopsis:“I cento passi” (one hundred steps) is a film about Mafia, but it does not belong to the genre of Mafia movies that, according to a cliché, have always depicted Sicily as an island of codes of silence and criminal activities, where nobody does anything to change things. As director of this movie, Marco Tullio Giordana asserts that I cento passi “is not a mafia movie and it has none of the conventional elements of such a film. It doesn’t deal with the conflict between good and evil, between saints and sinners, between the rule of law and that of crime. … It’s a movie about family bounds, about the shame of belonging to a tainted family”. Peppino Impastato, together with other people who like him sacrificed their freedom for an ideal of justice, is the example of a brave and resolved answer to an untouchable and impenetrable social system like the Mafia. He had the courage to opposing this system, by fighting against Tano Badalamenti, one the most influential figures of Cosa Nostra and against his own family, which was connected to him. Peppino denounced the distortion of Mafia in his little Sicilian town, Cinisi, ridiculing the taboos of silence of locals and relatives. He did this with simple strategies, running a local newspaper and a tiny radio station called Radio Aut, that he used for yelling out his disgust and his anger. Peppino was killed on May 9 1978. His death was covered up as suicide that Peppino, whom they called a terrorist, committed with his own bomb. Only after six years, was it actually recognized that Impastato was murdered by the Mafia, even though there was not enough evidence for prosecution. Finally, in 1999, new testimonies could confirm that Tano Badalamenti ordered Impastato’s murder, and in 2000, while the parliamentary inquiry was still looking into the case, I cento passi won the Leone d’Oro at the Film Festival in Venice. One hundred is the number of steps that separated Peppino’s house from that of Badalamenti, and that Peppino had the courage of counting aloud with the anger of someone who wanted to fight against injustice.
14 November 2007 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Cristina Massaccesi, UCL.. Venue: Gavin De Beer Lecture Theatre, UCL Anatomy Building, Gower Street Admission free. All welcome.	Translations/Transpositions (n association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screeing of Le conseguenze dell'amore (The COnsequences of Love) with English subtitles Director: Paolo Sorrentino (2005) Starring: Toni Sevillo, Olivia Magnani, Adriano Giannini, Raffaele Pisu, Angela Goodwin Synopsis: Paolo Sorrentino’s gripping psychological thriller probes the dark secret harboured by middle-aged Italian loner Titta Di Girolamo, who has lived for eight years in an anonymous Swiss hotel. Elegantly dressed, he impassively spends his days in the lobby or the hotel bar observing the guests and staff with cool detachment. But his icy demeanour cracks when he begins to talk to the attractive barmaid Sofia, and the terrible truth about Titta’s concealed world begins to unravel. Featuring a masterfully restrained performance from Toni Servillo, Le conseguenze dell’amore is a tightly plotted, stylishly executed thriller that marks Sorrentino as an exciting and highly original filmmaking talent.
28 November 2007 3pm - 4.30pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Malet Place Engineering Building, Room 1.02. UCL Main Campus Free entrance | All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screening of Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) with English subtitles Director: Emanuele Crialese (2006) Starring: Vincenzo Amato, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Filippo Pucillo, Aurora Quattrocchi Synopsis: At the turn of the 20th century, in a desolate corner of the Sicilian countryside, a family’s apparently changeless life of hardship and toil is interrupted by tales of the New World and its inhabitants, of the riches of this paradise. Salvatore makes the momentous decision to sell all he has – his land, his home, his livestock – and to take his children and aged mother to a better life across the ocean. As Salvatore embarks on his epic journey, he meets a mysterious English woman, Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and their destinies begin to entwine as, amid a harrow crossing, a love story begins to unfold. To become citizens of the New World, they must die a little and be reborn. they must leave behind the antiquated customs and superstitions of their homeland – they must be strong in body and healthy in their mind, learn to obet and swear loyalty – if they wish to pass through the Golden Door.
9 January 2007 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Cristina Massaccesi, UCL.. Venue: Gavin De Beer Lecture Theatre, UCL Anatomy Building, Gower Street Admission free. All welcome.	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screening of I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, with English subtitles). Director: Mario Monicelli (1958) Starring: Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Totò, Renato Salvatori Synopsis: This classic crime comedy features a pair of clumsy thieves who head a group of criminals in a break-in attempt. Their plan involves digging an underground tunnel from an apartment that leads to a neighbouring business and drilling their way inside. In addition to each of the burglars struggling with individual personal problems, the group must reassess their plans after something unexpectedly goes wrong with their plan. Big Deal on Madonna Street is a spoof of Jules Dassin's caper classic Rififi and it can be regarded as the first and one of the finest examples of the so-called ‘commedia all’italiana’.
15 January 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Room 1:01 Foster Court, Malet Place, UCL main campus All welcome	Translations/Transpositions Dr Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen, UCL, more ... In the Eye of Apollo: World Literature from Goethe to Google Abstract
23 January 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Gavin De Beer Lecture Theatre, UCL Anatomy Building, Gower Street Admission free. All welcome.	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) Divorzio all'Italiana (Divorce Italian Style) with English subtitles Director: Pietro Germi (1961) Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, Leopoldo Trieste Synopsis: Baron Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni) longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia (Daniela Rocca). His solution? Since divorce is illegal, he hatches a plan to lure his spouse into the arms of another man and then murder her in a justifiable effort to save his honour. The Criterion Collection is proud to present director Pietro Germi’s hilarious and cutting satire of Sicilian male-chauvinist culture, winner of the 1962 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
29 January 2008 5 pm – 7 pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Room 1:01 Foster Court, Malet Place, UCL main campus All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian, more ...) Professor Derek Duncan, University of Bristol, more ... Landscapes for Good Women: Migration and the Contextual Dilemma Abstract
6 February 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Gavin De Beer Lecture Theatre, UCL Anatomy Building, Gower Street Admission free. All welcome.	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) C'erabamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much) with English subtitles Introduced by Dr Cristina Massaccesi, more ... Director : Ettore Scola (1974) Starring : Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, StefanoSatta Flores, Stefania Sandrelli, Giovanna Ralli, Aldo Fabrizi   Synopsis : In a retrospective allegory, the director Ettore Scola examines the lives of three Resistance fighters—Antonio, Gianni and Nicola—and their transformation over thirty years. Each of these friends falls in love with the beautiful Luciana, an aspiring actress, thus testing the friendship and idealism they all shared. Throughout the story Scola pays tribute to the masters of Italian cinema by weaving classic film clips and iconic personalities into the background, as the film reveals which of the three friends remains true to the spirit of liberation they had once fought to achieve.
19 February 2008 5 pm-7 pm. Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Malet Place Engineering Building Room 1.20, UCL main campus (more ...) All welcome	Translations/Transpositions Dr Carol O'Sullivan, University of Portsmouth, School of Languages and Area Studies, more ... Travel, Migration and Multilingual Film Abstract
20 February 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Cristina Massaccesi (more ...) Venue: Seminar Room, UCL Italian Department, Foster Court, UCL main campus (more ...) Free entrance. All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screening of Le Notti Bianche (White Nights) with English subtitles Director: Luchino Visconti (1957) Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais, Clara Calamai Synopsis:Marcello Mastroianni, as a lonely city transplant, and Maria Schell, as a sheltered girl haunted by a lover’s promise, meet by chance on a canal bridge and begin a tentative romance that quickly entangles them in a web of longing and self-delusion. Luchino Visconti’s Le notti bianche, an exquisite adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s White Nights, translates this romantic, shattering tale of two restless souls into a ravishing black-and-white dream.
25 February 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Room 347 UCL SEES, Taviton Street, WC1 (more ...) Campus maps All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies, the Embassies of Sweden and Norway, and Lektoratsudvalget, Denmark) Professor Horace Engdahl (more ... ). Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy (more ...) and UCL Visiting Professor UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (more ...) Literature and the Hunger for Tears: Lidner, Runeberg, Lagerlöf The seminar will be introduced by Professor Michael Worton, as Director of the UCL Mellon Programme (more ...) Abstract | poster
5 March 2008 3pm - 4.30pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Seminar Room, Italian Department, Foster Court, University College London, Gower Street, WC1. Campus maps Free entrance | All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Italian Film Club) A screening of Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips), without English subtitles Director: Silvio Soldini (2000) Starring: Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Marina Massironi, Giuseppe Battiston, and Felice Andreasi Synopsis: Bored with her life, dutiful housewife Rosalba takes a sudden opportunity for freedom when she is unexpectedly separated from everyone during a family vacation. After a tour bus leaves without her, her husband and children do not notice her absence until it is too late. Virtually penniless, she finds a place to stay in a cheap, run-down hotel and makes friends with a waiter who serves her cold food. Deciding to stay, Rosalba finds work with an elderly florist and moves in with the waiter. The beauty of Venice, together with her new-found freedom, leads her to romance and self-discovery while her husband hires an amateur detective to track her down. The film won nine David di Donatello.
6 March 2008 5pm-7pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: Ramsay Lecture Theatre, Christopher Ingold Building. UCL, London WC1 Campus maps All welcome	Translations/Transpositions (in association with the UCL Department of Scandinavian Studies (more ...) & UCL Gender Studies (more ...). Dr Lasse Horne Kjaeldgaard (University of Copenhagen), more ... Out of (British East) Africa: Karen Blixen and Colonialism Abstract .t.b.a. | poster Introduction and response: Dr Dag Heede (more ...) This seminar has been made possible with the generous help and advice of Dr Jakob Stougaard-Nielesen (UCL Teaching Fellow in Danish), more ...
24 April 2008 3pm-6pm Chair: Dr Federica Mazzara Venue: The Pearson Lecture Theatre, Pearson Building, main campus Campus maps All welcome	Translations/Transpositions in association with the UCL Italian Department (more ...) and the UCL Centre for Intercultural Studies (more ...) Identities in the Plural: Voicing Difference in Contemporary Italy Programme (pdf format) Professor Graziella Parati (Dartmouth College), more ... Literary and Cultural Alliances in Migration Abtsract Dr Loredana Polezzi (University of Warwick), more ... Multiplying Italian Voices Abstract
Tuesday 13 May, 3 pm Room 1.03, Engineering Building, Malet Place. All welcome	Translations/Transpositions ((in association with the Institute of German and Romance Studies at the University of London's School of Advanced Study, and the Friends of Italian Studies))  A screening of Satyricon (1969), a film by Federico Fellini

This page last modified 26 September, 2012 by UCL Mellon Admin